Chapter 76: The Birthday Banquet (Part 1)

  The four-day period passed quickly, and what made Li Yang very depressed was that Zhang Ying unexpectedly took three days off in a row, causing Li Yang's idea of going out to look for a house to completely disappear.

  In these four days, apart from receiving customers and sorting out the company's sales accounts after work, Li Yang had been reading those few books on antiques he bought. Only after understanding the contents of these books did Li Yang deeply understand why Wu Xiaoli and Zheng Kaida repeatedly reminded him that the water in this antique business was really too deep, and counterfeiting could be said to have already become a part of the antique industry, a kind of culture ingrained in the bones of antiques.

  No matter which antique book, it will mention how to identify the fake ones. Li Yang has a special ability to help him out. After work, he ran to Mingyang Antique Street and turned around for a while. In these few days, he really recognized many characteristics of fake things. Of course, all this was achieved with the help of his special ability. With his special ability, at least in terms of age, nothing can hide from Li Yang.

  For an elderly person, the 70th birthday is a day of utmost importance. For their children, this day is also one of great significance. Wu Xiaoli's maternal grandfather's family had prepared for this birthday banquet more than a month in advance, determined to ensure that everything went off without a hitch.

  Wu Xiaoli's maternal grandfather is Liu Xuesong, who was mentioned earlier and is the chief professor of Mingyang Museum, as well as a leading figure in Mingyang's antique circle. For someone like him, the most suitable gift for his birthday would be antiques.

  Doing longevity for the elderly, encountering ten is called big longevity, such as 'fifty big longevity', 'sixty big longevity', 'seventy big longevity' and so on. However, this big longevity does not actually encounter ten, but refers to forty-nine, fifty-nine, sixty-nine and other numbers that encounter nine. Because nine has the largest value among the ten digits, people form this custom of 'celebrating nine but not celebrating ten' for auspiciousness.

  Among these birthdays, the 70th birthday is the most important one. In ancient times, the 60th birthday would have been more grand, but now that people's living standards have improved and retirement age has been delayed, the most important birthday for the elderly has become the 70th birthday this time.

  There is a saying that "seventy years of life are rare since ancient times". For Liu Xuesong's children, the past 70 years have been extremely hard as he has endured hardships and difficulties to raise his two sons and four daughters. Especially after his wife passed away early, the children showed even more respect for their father. Whenever Liu Xuesong mentioned his wish to celebrate his birthday, all of his children would get busy, determined to make him happy without any regrets.

  Liu Xuesong is sixty-nine years old this year, and he is celebrating his seventieth birthday. According to the customs of Mingyang, this kind of seventieth birthday is also called "zhengshou". On the day of zhengshou, there are traditional gifts such as longevity fans, longevity clothes, longevity people, and longevity peaches. Some people who pay attention to details will also add longevity operas and longevity couplets.

  Liu Xuesong's children are currently holding relatively important leadership positions, and he himself is an authoritative scholar. There must be many people coming to celebrate his birthday, so Liu Xuesong's several children discussed it and decided to put the birthday banquet in a hotel after getting the old man's consent, otherwise, there would not be enough space at home for so many people.

  However, putting it in a hotel would inevitably conflict with some traditional customs. Fortunately, the elderly are more open-minded and don't mind these things.

  On Sunday morning, Liu's family arrived at the hotel to make arrangements. As a relatively well-known figure in Mingyang, Liu Xuesong's birthday celebration would also be attended by many retired officials, so the scale and level of the event could not be low.

  In the apartment, Li Yang was holding a comb in front of the mirror and kept combing his hair. He always felt that today's hairstyle wasn't good enough, and going to an old man's birthday banquet with a messy hairstyle would be disrespectful to the elderly.

  After fiddling in front of the mirror for over ten minutes, Li Yang finally nodded in satisfaction, glanced at his crisp suit and casually picked up the gift box on the table before heading out.

  As soon as the door opened, Li Yang was startled and quickly retreated a step back. If he hadn't, the person in front of him would have punched his head with their fist that had stopped just short of its target.

  "What are you doing?"

  Li Yang looked at Wu Xiaoli in surprise, Wu Xiaoli was dressed up very beautifully today, but even a beautiful girl can't hold her fist to hit someone, this action made the elegant temperament on Wu Xiaoli's body disappear.

  "Didn't I come to pick you up?" Wu Xiaoli stared with wide eyes, looking very innocent.

  Li Yang smiled wryly and said, "Do you have to receive me in this manner?"

  Wu Xiaoli's hand was still raised at this time, and Li Yang reminded her to put it down immediately. Her face turned slightly red, but her eyes were still staring at Li Yang.

  "I was just about to knock on the door, who knew you came out from inside!"

  "Knock on the door?" Li Yang touched his nose: "I remember there's a doorbell, why do you still want to knock on the door?"

  "I forgot, let's go!" Wu Xiaoli suddenly stopped and glared at Li Yang fiercely before grabbing his hand and running out. Li Yang quickly released himself to lock the door before following her out.

  Liu Xuesong's birthday banquet was held at the Tianyu Hotel, the best in Mingyang. The entire second floor was booked by Liu Xuesong's children. As a deputy hall-level retired cadre, many city leaders will come to congratulate him personally today, which is also a manifestation of the municipal leadership's care for retired old cadres.

  Li Yang's Volvo didn't start, and he was directly stuffed into Wu Xiaoli's car by her. As the granddaughter of this direct family member, Wu Xiaoli had to arrive at the hotel early to make preparations, which is why she was in such a hurry to find Li Yang. As for why Li Yang also went so early, both of them ignored it.

  At the hotel entrance, one of Wu Xiaoli's maternal uncles and a cousin were already standing at the door. When they saw Li Yang get out of Wu Xiaoli's car, both of them were stunned for a moment.

  "Uncle, this is my colleague Li Yang, he came especially today to celebrate Grandpa's birthday!"

  Wu Xiaoli pulled Li Yang to the front of an older person, mentioning Li Yang's name. Wu Xiaoli's uncle suddenly looked surprised and then came forward to shake hands warmly. However, Li Yang always felt that his eyes were a bit strange, not just Wu Xiaoli's uncle, but also Wu Xiaoli's cousin.

  "Welcome, welcome, Xiaoming! Bring Xiaoli and her colleagues inside first!"

  Wu Xiaoli's uncle carefully sized up Li Yang from head to toe before finally smiling in satisfaction, while Wu Xiaoli's cousin also had a strange smile on his face as he pulled Li Yang along and headed inside.

  The second floor of the hotel has already become a birthday banquet atmosphere. In the center of the second-floor banquet hall, there is a chair with a large longevity character behind it. Wu Xiaoli's grandfather is not here yet, but after the birthday ceremony starts later, he will sit here to accept the birthday greetings from his children and grandchildren, which is also an important step in celebrating one's 70th birthday.

  On the second floor, near the staircase, there was a special reception area, mainly for receiving gifts from guests. Generally speaking, only close relatives or good friends would bring real gifts. Most people with more distant relationships or who came out of courtesy brought cash gifts instead. Liu Xuesong had already instructed that any gift exceeding 200 yuan should not be accepted, lest it be misunderstood that he was using his birthday as an opportunity to accumulate wealth.

  Li Yang casually handed the gift box over, and the receptionist looked at Li Yang in surprise. Only people who are close to each other would give gifts, but it was clear that none of them had met before.

  The two receptionists also saw Wu Xiaoli and his cousin following behind, nodded together in the end, and both showed a bit of strange smile on their faces. These two receptionists were also Liu's family members.

  "Li Yang, you sit here for a while first, I'll come find you after I'm busy!"

  Wu Xiaoli led Li Yang to a large table that was still empty, and with great concern, she instructed him for a moment. Today's guests were not few, and she also had to go out to busy herself with receiving them.

  "Alright, you go ahead and get busy!"

  Li Yang nodded, looking around the hall. Since Li Yang arrived relatively early, there were not many people in the hall yet. Others did not come alone like him; most of them came in twos or threes and sat down to eat melon seeds and chat.

  In the depths of the hall, there was another room. When someone came in and out, Li Yang happened to see several old men sitting inside, presumably Wu Xiaoli's grandfather was now inside, waiting for the start of the longevity gift ceremony.

  …………………………

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